APPENDIX. 171 
propagation. On low-lying, rich, and clayey soil the tree grows up 
more rapidly, but its gum is then of such a poor quality that the 
cultivation yields little or no profit. On such a soil there is also 
danger of floods, which are fatal to the tree. Marshy or stony soil 
is altogether unsuited to the culture, The tree is propagated from 
the seed, which is of a reddish colour, almost round in shape, and of 
the size of amarble. Itis enclosed in a green shell. When the 
would-be planter has gathered a sufficient quantity of the seeds, which 
are a favourite food of wild beasts of the forest, he plants them out 
in rows in the paddy-field, just before the paddy crop is put in the 
ground, Sometimes the young benzoin-shoots which have grown up 
around the parent stem are dug out and transplanted among the 
paddy, The object of the plantation on the paddy-field is to secure 
the necessary shade for the seedlings, which would be easily killed 
by the fierce sunlight. Two seeds are usually planted in one hole; ~ 
if both come up, the weaker plant is generally destroyed. If the 
culture takes place by means of young shoots from the parent tree, 
these shoots, before planting, are stripped of their leaves, and placed 
in water in bunches of about twenty-five, being kept afloat between 
two bamboo sticks, "When fresh leaves have grown upon the shoots, 
they are planted out in an oblique hole, which is left open for a time. 
The new benzoin-tree grows from the roots of the young shoot, after 
which the stem of the latter perishes. The natives appear to take 
no trouble whatever in weeding their benzoin plantations, and many 
of the plants are therefore suffocated by creepers and weeds, Only 
planted his seeds or shoots for the purpose of gathering his first 
crop of juice. By that time the shoot has grown into a fine tree, 
branching and bearing leaves at the top only, and from 25 to 40 feet 
in height. When once the tapping of the tree has commenced, its 
growth is almost arrested, and the colour of its bark gradually 
changes from pale grey to brown. If the tree is left to grow wild, 
its height trebles or quadruples, some of the specimens in the virgin 
forest being over 250 feet high, The incisions made in the tree are 
almost triangular in form, and are made at regular intervals and on 
a systematic and invariable plan. A yellowish juice begins to exude 
from the incisions a week after they are made, but not until six 
weeks or two months after its appearance has it hardened sufficiently 
to admit of being collected. The tree becomes exhausted between its 
